New Nokia CEO Should Focus On Selling Company?

from the strictly-his-opinion dept

In one of the more outlandish rumors to pop up lately, Cisco was supposed to be mulling a buyout of Nokia. Unsurprisingly, the rumor's gone nowhere, but it's got one columnist saying that Nokia's incoming CEO should focus on selling the company, saying it's hard to see a future for it as a standalone company. Nokia's still the dominant player in the business, though its market share has fallen 10 points from its peak a few years back, including a 6-point drop in one quarter. But it's hard to see the company selling out, given that dominance, but after the last 18 months, it's clear that the company is no longer the invincible force that many (including Nokia itself) thought it was. Nokia's seen two of its big competitors -- Ericsson and Siemens -- pull back from the handset market in recent years, and like Nokia, Ericsson once lead the market. So while it would be surprising for Nokia to look for a buyer, it's clear the company's continued success isn't as certain as it was a few years ago. The Nokia brand may be a big draw, but not when it's attached to products that are out of line with what people want. It's also worth pointing out something that seems to be getting lost in all these rumors: Nokia makes a lot more than just handsets. Though the vast majority of its sales are from phones, it also makes mobile network equipment and other products. It would be less surprising to see any of its other businesses get sold off rather than the core mobile phone business or the entire company.